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When Greg Ford was appointed by the North American Electric Reliability Corp. to chair a task force to modernize the grid standards process and procedures, he immediately knew who to call: Patti Metro, NRECA's senior director of grid operations and reliability.
“Most everyone in the G&T community, when it comes to a technical solution, we immediately call Patti because most all the time she has the answers that we're looking for," says Ford, president and CEO of Georgia System Operations Corp. “And if she doesn't know, she knows who to call.
“I look to her for support as we go through this. She is already behind the scenes adding valuable input in how we navigate through that process."
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Metro is NRECA's only NERC-certified Reliability System Operator—a feat that requires 200 hours of continuing education and training across three years—and serves on both the NERC Compliance and Certification Committee and the Standards Committee, where she works on managing the development and implementation of bulk power grid standards with co-ops in mind.
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“I'm the person that NERC comes to when they want very specific comments on things that are outside of their typical committee structure," says Metro. “So I'm the one who facilitates these requests with our members."
From building transmission lines to operating generation inside a utility control room, Metro brings an authoritative understanding of the power sector deemed redoubtable by peers. Before joining NRECA in 2007, she worked for investor-owned utilities and public power. She has supervised power restoration at Santee Cooper, South Carolina's largest power and water utility, and engineered and maintained 46kV through 500kV overhead and underground transmission lines at Georgia Power.
She also managed the compliance enforcement program at the Florida Reliability Coordinating Council and did a lot of consulting, training and mentoring of young engineers along the way.
Metro sees her role as electric co-ops' advocate in the regulatory arena where reliability rules are set.
“NRECA gave me opportunities to be a voice and use my skillsets that I enjoy using," says Metro. She was hired by Dave Mohr, the association's former executive director of energy and power in Business & Technology Strategies, who wanted someone with a technical background who could support and educate co-ops as the industry transitioned from voluntary to mandatory grid reliability standards.
Today, she's NRECA's primary technical adviser on mandatory reliability standards, grid reliability, real-time operations and their associated risks and impacts—and serves the co-op community as a go-to expert.
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“With over four decades of deep-rooted experience in utility operations, regulatory strategy and grid reliability, Patti brings an exceptional blend of technical expertise and strategic insight to the cooperative community," says Venkat Banunarayanan, NRECA vice president of the integrated grid.
Metro explains regulations to the co-op community and brings a real-world, co-op perspective to NERC and its supervising agency, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, on their reliability, transmission and technical policies and their effect on efficiency and grid security.
“Folks in NRECA's Government Relations work closely with Patti. She is an expert not only on the operational impact of NERC standards, but also on whether and how these standards align with NRECA and G&T grid policies," says Mary Ann Ralls, NRECA senior director, regulatory counsel.
“I'm their voice," says Metro. “But in order to be their voice, we have to figure out a way to know what that voice needs to be."
That's where her work in the G&T Managers Association comes to the fore. Her determination to help design its Grid Management Committee as a strategic technical arm for CEOs has been crucial, says Ford, its former chair. “Patti was instrumental in the very beginnings of that."
Ford and Jason Marshall, CEO of Marshfield, Missouri-based Sho-Me Power, serve on NERC's Member Representatives Committee and were expected to convey co-ops' concerns when the regulator sought greater efficiency in how it advanced grid security and reliability.
With support from Metro, their input eventually led to NERC creating the Reliability, Security and Technical Committee with co-ops in mind, says Ford. Metro “was a huge help in that process," Ford recalls. “She has got the pulse on the G&T technical community."
Getting that pulse takes a significant amount of travel—up to 45 weeks out of the year—from Metro's Florida home.
“I was working remotely before remote work was cool," she says.
She's proud to say she's been to every state on behalf of NRECA to hold education and training sessions and conduct committee service. “I got my 50th state in my 50th year," she says.
Despite her road warrior ways for G&Ts, in her off time, Metro enjoys traveling, spending time with her family and finding ways to inspire a new generation of engineers in the energy field.
